We have re thought buying on Haven for the time being, as said in previous posts we would be paying site fees of £3000 plus and would hardly have any time in the caravan before we have to close it up. All we want is a caravan site in the north wales area that has facilities for young families, hopefully an indoor swimming pool, will have to keep looking,
Thanks again

We signed for our van in late September knowing that we only had approx 8 weeks left of the season. We bought our Static Brand New. What we did was play a cat and mouse game with the sales office back in July. Initially placing a deposit down then cancelling.

The site got back in touch asking if we were still interested and could they quote again. Which they did, only this time the discount was far greater. I then said well Iíll wait till Jan 19 and buy then. They then said well would you sign now if we could discount the remaining site fees. Which we agreed on.

Basically in the end we bought a Swift Provence spec 2019 Model 2 Bedroom with Wrap Round Decking in remaining site fees for 2018 and site fees for 2019 for approx £44K

my question is would we be better waiting to buy a caravan until the end of the season to get a better deal.

Thanks in advance

Hi Sue,

I'm guessing a caravan is worth as much as someone could get for it.

When i first bought my caravan i had £10,000 cash and could of gone up to £12,000 but like buying a secondhand car the salesman can and will do deals, so here's my advice.

Tell the saleperson you want to buy today and for them to come up with a deal, Normally they throw in site fees for a year or two so in your case it could save you ££'s.

I finally got one for £10,750 and a years free site fees including the remainder of the year. 4 months later i managed to upgrade and got a deal with a newer model and central Heating and Double Glazing and 2 years free site fees. I've seen vans that are the same as my original van go for £15,000 a few weeks back.

Buying private you need to be sure your buying the at the right price, Some owner may over value their vans because its valuable to them but not to you. Sales commision should be paid by the owner not you. Also if they still owe for their site fee's that will be down to them to pay not you as you will be starting up a new site fee agreement with the Park itself not taking over someone else's.

So be careful, Check out the sales office and see if they can make a deal with you, You might pay a bit more perhaps but might get a better deal on Site fee's for a year or 2 which could save you £12,000 ??

Also i would look at buying in the summer as opposed to out of season as this is when parks have a longer time to sell their stocks, so deals may be less coming. If you buy in the summer you might get a better deal as Parks will be wanting to sell all old stocks before the winter shutdown, so might do you a better deal.

Sometimes it's better to buy from the site. Don't forget you can always barter the price down and ask for 12 months free site fees. You may not get it but similar deals have been achieved by other members. Also, type the model of van and year into your web browser to compare prices. You will usually find the same make and model on several parks and all will be different in price but it will give you a reasonable idea if the price is right. If not try to get the park to reduce the price.